1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure generally relates to power supplies, for example, fuel cell systems, and to electrical power storage devices, for example, batteries and/or ultracapacitors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fuel cells are known in the art. Fuel cells electrochemically react a fuel stream comprising hydrogen and an oxidant stream comprising oxygen to generate an electric current. Fuel cell electric power plants have been employed in transportation, portable and stationary applications.
Stationary and portable applications include distributed power generation, back-up power, peak power, and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems. Distributed power generation relates to providing electrical power to residential, commercial and/or industrial customers instead of, or as a supplement to, the utility power grid. Power plants in such applications typically operate continuously. They are particularly suited to situations where the power grid is not available or sufficiently reliable. Peak power systems are intended to supplement the power grid, providing electrical power intermittently during periods of peak use when sufficient grid power may not be available or when the rate charged by the utility increases. Back-up power and UPS systems provide electrical power during periods when the power grid, or other primary power source, is unavailable.
In addition, UPS systems must be able to provide power to the consumer substantially continuously, i.e., they must be “instant on” so that the loss of grid power does not result in an interruption of power supply to the consumer. Consumers who rely on electronic equipment, for example, cannot tolerate even minor interruptions in power supply. In this regard, the Information Technology Industry Council has issued guidelines for voltage dropouts, which are not to exceed 20 milliseconds. In this context, a voltage dropout includes both severe RMS voltage sags and complete interruptions of the applied voltage.
Conventional back-up power and UPS systems employ rechargeable battery banks for supplying electric power when the power grid is interrupted. For applications where a relatively short run time is acceptable, battery banks may be the sole source of back-up power. Where longer run times are required, however, such systems also employ a generator to supply power. In this case, the battery banks provide immediate power until the generator can come online.
Valve regulated lead acid (VRLA) batteries are most often employed in the battery banks. The number of batteries depends on the required run time. For lower power applications (2–7.5 kW), run times of 15 minutes or less are common; other systems employing batteries alone may require run times of 4–8 hours, or more. Current limits are set on re-charging of batteries to avoid damaging them. In practice, VRLA batteries are recharged at a 6×–10×rate, that is, the time to fully re-charge the batteries is six to ten times longer than their run time.
These conventional power supply systems have several significant disadvantages. For example, particularly in applications requiring extended battery run time (e.g., >4 hr), VRLA battery banks are large and heavy. A large battery bank requires a significant amount of indoor floor space for installation, which can be expensive. In addition, the weight of the battery bank may require indoor floor space with increased loading capacity, further increasing costs. Environmental regulations relating to the storage and operation of VRLA batteries also add to increased installation costs. Operating and maintaining a generator further adds to the cost and complexity of systems employing them.
Back-up power and UPS systems employing fuel cell electric power plants have also been described. The described systems have several disadvantages relating to the supply of reactants to the fuel cells, the time it takes for the fuel cells to produce full power, and their surge demand capacity, for example.
Fuel cell output is proportional to the amount of reactants supplied. On start-up, there is typically a delay until the fuel cells reach full operating power. For this reason, back-up or UPS systems solely employing fuel cells are inadequate for some applications because they are not “instant on”. One approach has been to keep the fuel cells in such systems continuously running, either supplying power to the load or in a low output “stand-by” mode. While this approach improves response time, it exacerbates hydrogen storage issues by significantly increasing hydrogen consumption. In addition, operational lifetime of the power plant may be adversely affected compared to systems where the power plant is operated intermittently.
Fuel cells can be damaged if the load requirements exceed their maximum output. Thus, in power plants solely employing fuel cells, the rated output of the fuel cell stack is generally matched to the expected peak load. In applications where transient load increases are significantly higher than normal load requirements, this necessitates a larger size and output fuel cell stack than required for normal operation in order to deal with surge demand. This, in turn, undesirably increases the cost of the power plant.
In most practical applications, it is desirable to maintain an approximately constant voltage output from the fuel cell stack. One approach is to employ a battery electrically coupled in parallel with the fuel cell system to provide additional current when the demand of the load exceeds the output of the fuel cell stack and to store current when the output of the fuel cell stack exceeds the demand of the load, as taught in commonly assigned pending U.S. Pat. No. 6,841,275, issued Jan. 11, 2005 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling Voltage From a Fuel Cell System”; Ser. No. 10/017,462 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Multiple Mode Control of Voltage From a Fuel Cell System” and U,S. Pat. No. 6,573,682, Jun. 3, 2003 entitled “Fuel Cell System Multiple Stage Voltage Control Method and Apparatus”, all filed Dec. 14, 2001.
The many different practical applications for fuel cell based power supplies require a large variety of different power delivery capabilities. In most instances it is prohibitively costly and operationally inefficient to employ a power supply capable of providing more power than required by the application. It is also costly and inefficient to design, manufacture and maintain inventories of different power supplies capable of meeting the demand of each potential application (e.g., 1 kW, 2 kW, 5 kW, 10 kW, etc.). Further, it is desirable to increase the reliability of the power supply, without significantly increasing the cost. Thus, a less costly, less complex and/or more efficient approach to fuel cell based power supplies is desirable.